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1. Calories are the KING for Fat and Weight Loss No if, ands, or buts.
Now, this can be done through training. (burning more calories)
This can be done through nutrition. (eating & drinking fewer calories)
Or this can be done through some training and nutrition (This one works best, in my opinion).
No matter what, to lose fat and weight, you must consistently be in a calorie deficit (having more calories expended (burned) than consumed (eaten and drank)).
2. You Are Always One Bite or One Workout Away from Being Back on Track
You truly are.
Break the cycle of thinking you must wait until tomorrow, next week, or even next month.
Eat some protein.
Take a walk.
Drink some water.
And get yourself back on track.
3. Focus On Consistent Actions/Habits
The idea is to be consistent with your training and nutrition habits, where the side effect will be fat loss and weight loss.
This takes the pressure off your worry about something you can’t control, like the number on the scale, and puts it on to something you can control, like your steps and what you eat and drink.
4. AND stop Getting so F*cking Caught Up with the Number on the Scale I am not saying the scale is a lousy tool to measure progress, but by any means, stop using it to judge your progress day to day or week to week.
AND more importantly, by any means, it does not describe your self-worth (no matter what that scale number says, you are still an amazing, kind human being).
All the scale does is provides you with data on your weight.
Each day you weigh yourself, it includes not only your body fat but also your muscles, bones, water, and food.
If the scale doesn’t move, that does not mean you are not making progress, so stop solely relying on the scale to measure your progress.
Use body measurements and progress pictures to see how clothes fit, your strength progress in the gym, and your daily energy
Compare your progress from week 1 to week 4, then judge week 4 to week 8, and so on.
Why?
It helps you build and maintain muscle.
It keeps you full.
It keeps you full for longer.
It has the highest thermic effect of food, meaning you use more energy (burn more calories) during digestion #bonuscardio.
Each day, aim to have .7-1 gram of protein per 1 pound of goal body weight.
6. Set up Your Environment for Success
Eating cookies and ice cream are tough when you do not have cookies and ice cream in your house.
Waking up at 5 am for a workout is a challenge. The more decisions you have to make in the morning, the more difficult it will be. The night before, get your gym clothes and bag ready.
Set your environment up for success to set yourself up for success.
7. Eat Your Fruits and Vegetables
“Wahhh, but Kev, I don’t like Vegetables.”
Well, your kid doesn’t like homework, but why do you make them do it… Because it's good for them.
I agree; donuts and pizza taste way better than fruits and veggies. But you don’t have to eat nasty ones like water chestnuts and cauliflower. Instead, find the ones you do enjoy and eat those often.
When it comes to fat loss, fruits and veggies will be a HUGE bang for your buck. You can eat them in higher volumes without making a massive dent in your daily calories, which helps with staying full and satisfied.
Aim to have at least one serving of fruit or veggies at each meal.
8. Ask Yourself Why? (Dive Deeper)
Self-awareness is one of the first steps to making change. Dive deeper into the "why" behind what you think and do to understand yourself more.
Why is this my goal?
Why is this important to me?
Why do I keep doing this "specific action"?
9. Walk More
Need to start moving more and wondering where to start? Walk.
Want more energy? Walk
Want to improve your health? Walk
Need to destress? Walk.
Want to feel better? Walk.
Walking has so many benefits from both a physical standpoint and a mental standpoint.
10. Cut Out the Things that Weigh You Down
You are in a Hot Air Balloon that is ready to float off the ground. You get it up a couple of feet, but then it stops. So you start pumping more heat into it.
You notice it is still not going anywhere, so you pump even more heat into it.
Still, nothing.
Now you are hammering away, pumping as much heat as possible, and someone yells to you, “wait!”
They point underneath you, and as you look down, you see a tether still tied to the Hot Air Balloon and holding you down this whole time.
Sometimes we need to keep working hard to move forward, but it could be that we need to cut off the tethers that are holding us down.
Set boundaries.
Remove toxic relationships from your life.
Surround yourself with like-minded people.
Do more activities that charge your battery.
11. It’s Not Your Fault
It's not your fault that you grew up being taught certain foods are good or bad vs. learning all foods have their place.
It's not your fault you have viewed working out as a punishment vs. a way to improve your health physically and mentally.
It is not your fault that you have been conditioned to think making mistakes is failing vs. an opportunity to learn.
You don't know what you don't know. You have been raised to think a certain way, whether that is through family, friends, or the media.
12. Change the Way you Think & Talk.
Self-Talk impacts your self-efficacy, self-esteem, and mindset. It dramatically affects what we believe, how we feel about certain things, and what we do.
Phrasing things negatively leads to you being overly judgemental, making negative excuses, and tending to blame something or someone. This leads to you doing things like self-sabotaging yourself.
Start talking to yourself like you are talking to your best friend.
Start thinking about things as Opportunities vs. Obligations.
Instead of saying you HAVE to, say GET to.
Add "YET" to the end of your sentences.
- Go from “I can't figure out my nutrition.” to “I can't figure out my nutrition, YET, but I know this takes time, and I will keep at it.”
Look at mistakes not as "I am a failure" but as a chance (or opportunity) for you to learn and grow.
Shut your phone down and get your 7-9 hours of sleep!
Why?
It helps manage your hormones (leptin & ghrelin) which can help you manage your hunger and hormone regulation.
It helps with your daily energy.
It aids recovery and will help your performance in the gym (and bedroom).
Also, if you go to bed reasonably, there is a good chance it will help your late snacking problem (since you are not staying up later to have the opportunity to snack).
14. Train #CauseHealth (Not to punish yourself for eating a donut)
If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen me post my stories with the saying #CauseHealth.
Why is this?
Because this is the biggest reason, I go to the gym.
The gym is a place to get stronger, build some muscle, and improve your quality of life.
The gym is not a punishment for eating a donut.
God forbid you to get off track and enjoy life once in a while.
Nothing is bad about having one donut.
The gym should be empowering, not discouraging.
Use it as a way to get your first pull-up, deadlift 2x your body weight, squat your body weight, do 10 pushups from the floor, run a mile without stopping, etc.
15. Mistakes and Failures are Inevitable! Learn from them.
“Success is 99% failure.” - Soichiro Honda.
We are all beginners at some point with whatever we do.
So using, I am just not good at, this is a BS justification not to keep trying.
The first time you saw your baby (or a niece or nephew) walk, they at some point fell over because that is just what happens (especially if you had a giant dome like myself as a baby, and it was hard balancing that thing).
Now, did you tell them to quit after they fell?
Did you say, “Walking jsut isn't for them?”
I for sure hope not.
You pick them up and have them get at it again.
WHEN (because it will happen) you make mistakes or have a failure, instead of being a reason to quit, use it to learn and improve. That is how you grow. You make mistakes, see through them, and improve next time.
This does not mean restricting yourself or saying you “can’t” have anything.
Give yourself permission to do and eat whatever you want. This helps take much pressure off yourself and allows you to think in a way where you are the boss of your decision. You are in control.
But at some point, you will have to learn to say no.
No to staying home to watch Netflix.
No to the 2nd plate at the buffet.
No to getting dessert.
Again, this isn't because you “can’t.” This is because you have goals you want to reach; some days, saying no will allow you to stay on track and stay consistent.
Instead, you can say, “I know I can eat the pizza and cake, but I want to stay on track today, so no, thank you.”
17. Have a Growth Mindset vs. a Fix Mindset
Having a Growth Mindset:
Having a Fixed Mindset:
18. It’s Not That You Ate the Piece of Cake…
Here is a short story I wrote:
It’s not that you ate the piece of cake…
It’s that you ate the piece of cake and thought that you ruined all your progress, so you said, “fuck it,” and ended up eating the entire cake.
It’s not that you ate the piece of cake…
It’s that you ate the piece of cake, and since you label it as “bad,” you believe you’ve done something wrong and feel guilty, so you said, “fuck it,” and ate the entire cake.
It’s not that you ate the piece of cake…
It’s that you ate the piece of cake after over-restricting yourself all week, so you felt burnt out, said “fuck it,” and ate the entire cake with all the other treats, too.
It’s not that you ate the piece of cake…
It’s that you ate the piece of cake and delayed yourself getting back on track until the next week, so you said “fuck it” and kept eating cake all week.
Eat the cake, and stop saying, “fuck it.”
Remember, what you do most of the time matters, not some of the time.
Cake is not “bad”; one piece doesn’t ruin your progress.
Eat it and get yourself right back on track as soon as possible.
19. When FIrst Going to the Gym, Don’t Worry about Your Intensity; Focus on Showing Up.
Your workout intensity matters, but only if you are showing up.
Get used to making time and showing up to the gym, NO MATTER WHAT.
Even if that means walking on a treadmill for 5 minutes and stretching, that is progress in itself.
20. Something always beats Nothing.
A 5-minute walk beats a 0-minute walk.
A 20-minute workout beats a 0-minute workout.
Planning 1 meal beats planning no meals.
Something will always beat nothing.
You can focus on things you CAN do and the things you CAN add in vs. the things you CANT.
Don’t have an hour to workout out?
How about 30 minutes?
Don’t have 30 minutes to walk?
How about 5 minutes?
Can you plan out the whole week of meals?
How about the just for the next day?
21. YOLO (You Only Live Once)
Us millennials aren’t wrong with this whole YOLO thing.
Seriously, You Only Live Once.
The Voldemort in me still likes to believe I am going to live forever, but for now, this is, unfortunately, unpreventable.
So if you need a reason to create the life you want to live, here it is. You are going to die.
Screw what people think, do what YOU want to do in life, and live.
Let me share this quote with you:
“If you were to die right now, how would you feel about your life?” 2023, let's go!
22. “As I Am.”
So there are 2 sayings to think about here.
“Take me As I Am. Swear I’ll do my best I can."
Yes, this is a Justin Bieber’s hit, As I Am, but use this to remind yourself that no matter how many mistakes you make, how many times you may screw up, or how many times you may fail, know you are doing the best you can with what you got.
No one here to try to fuck up. You are not here to try to screw anyone over. But it's okay when you do. As you know, failure will be a part of the process, so what happens when you fall? You get right back up, dust the dirt off yourself and get back to it.
“Take me As I Am, or watch me as I go.”
Focused on whom you surround yourself with and whom you choose to spend time with.
It's easy to try and change who you are to try to “fit in.” You may start doing things you don’t even care about or act differently, draining your internal battery. So when it comes to the people you spend valuable time with, ask yourself:
"Do they drain my internal battery or charge it?"
If someone doesn’t accept you for whom you are (assuming you are not a serial killer or tv show spoiler), then why waste your time and energy? If they don’t support or lift you, “See you... Watch me as I go.”
Find like-minded people and a support system. You don’t need to change who you are to try and fit in with a particular crowd.
If you like to nerd out about Harry Potter, then let’s fucking talk shop about how awesome it would be to go to Hogwarts.
If you want to eat a donut (or if you are like me, donuts) but worry about people judging you, fuck ‘em. That is on them, and they are missing out - eat that donut and love life!
Self-improvement and growth are hard to stuff. So when you face these challenging days where you feel like giving up, remind yourself, “As I Am.“
23. As Long As You Never Quit, You Will Never Fail!
I want you to think about your health and fitness journey, like going on a long road trip.
There will be moments when you hit the highway and cruise along, and things feel effortless.
There will be moments when you hit a little bit of traffic, things slow down, and it gets frustrating.
There will be moments when you have to pull over for the night to take a break and rest to get back at it the next day.
No matter where you were on this long journey, though, at any point, you never quit and turned around.
As you are on your health and fitness journey, there are gonna be times when things feel effortless, you feel frustrated, and there are gonna be times you feel like quitting.
That is all normal.
But I promise you that as long as you never quit, you will not fail this process.
Focus on what you can do in challenging moments.
Learn from your mistakes,
And always keep going!
You got this!
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